Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Ed Bergstraesser

1. Ed Bergstraesser has worked in corporate and executive communications, as well as in advertising, and public affairs. Some Fortune 500 companies he has worked for include: AT&T, Verizon, and United Airlines. His past experience also includes working at Golin, a global public relations agency, DCI Group, a DC-based public affairs firm and Ingalls, Quinn & Johnson, an ad agency in Boston.

Ed is the founder of Bergstraesser Strategies, a full-service communications and consulting firm. In his firm, he applies the skills developed from working on national and regional public affairs and public relations campaigns in cities like New York, DC, and Chicago. Throughout his career, he has seen the peaks and valleys of American business like the Internet boom and bust in the late 1990s leading into the millennium.?

He can also recall the Sarbanes-Oxleys of the world and the Great Recession of 2008. Another memory to add to the list — the global pandemic— one we all remember and still are coming to terms with.?Ed and two partners set up a crisis communications interest in the midst of the pandemic.??

Ed knows his way around state houses, city halls and federal buildings, helping clients establish a public presence with government officials and their constituents via lobbying campaigns, grass roots efforts and initiatives more national in scope. ?

2. Ed has had hands-on involvement in national and grass-roots public awareness programs — most notably an award-winning online voter registration drive, bringing together public and private entities to register 75,000 citizens to vote.?

The initiative garnered 300 million impressions, as well as a Smithsonian Award in 1997. To achieve the success, Ed brought together seemingly disparate national organizations such as Rock the Vote and the AARP. AARP is one of the largest membership organizations and now has 38 million members worldwide.

3. Diversity, equity, and inclusion have deep meaning to Ed and those important principles can be traced back to his childhood and into his collegiate years, and now into adulthood. His first job out of Carleton College school was with The Chicago Reporter, an award-winning, investigative monthly on urban affairs and race relations.??

Ed’s father was a progressive Protestant minister who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s (Dr. King is pictured in center below, Ed’s father is wearing a striped robe on the dais on the left); his mother was equally involved in social justice via leadership in Equal Rights Amendment initiatives and marched at numerous rallies.

4. Pamplona, Spain is a city known for its art, museums, cathedrals and churches, and fast-moving, agitated bulls. The Running of the Bulls happens every year in the early part of July in Pamplona. Ed ran with the bulls in 2001. In retrospect, it was probably a not-so-wise idea, mainly because of the danger to Ed’s life, but also because of the not-well-thought-out strategy concerning the health of the animals. It was his first and very last time, but he says it was exhilarating.

5. Ed lives in upstate New York, a quick train-ride from New York City,?and has a political science degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.?He is the proud father of two daughters: Amy, who is an attorney for an NGO in Geneva, Switzerland; Jenna is a costume designer for movies (mainly independents) and is a talented illustrator.

Jenna had the opportunity to work for one of the world's leading producers of entertainment… Disney. Check out her work at Jennaillustrates.com.?Ed is an avid Chicago sports fan (except for the Cubs) and estimates that he’s been to at least 250 White Sox games and 75 Bulls games, including Jordan’s first game.

6. Ed has interspersed his business writing with stabs at writing fiction. You will not find his fictional work on shelves just yet. He has taken courses at the University of Iowa, UC Santa Cruz, as well as executive education courses about the Connected City.

Writing in different modes has helped firm up his reputation as a technology and feature specialist on topics ranging from the development of STEM civic programs in classroom curricula, to the branding and wording around public service campaigns, to dense public policy white papers, to web-site landing page copy to just plain old copywriting. Ask him for writing samples.?

One notable public service campaign Ed worked on was the highly impactful, yet sobering, “It Can Wait” texting-while-driving campaign during his tenure at AT&T.

Watch one of the videos from this emotional campaign.

7. Ed maintains executive committee board membership with the Parks and Trails of New York (PTNY) organization. It is the state’s most important advocacy organization with the mission of targeting more than 100 parks and working toward a new level of vibrancy and activism.

In addition to his board work at PTNY, he is also a board member of the renowned Bardavon and Ulster Performing Arts Centers in New York State, the Walkway over the Hudson, and the Creative Coalition.?

Ask him about the hard work he put in to get recognized as a winner of seven communications and PR industry awards. Beyond environmental activism and the Arts, over the years Ed has been actively involved as a mentor and volunteer in corporate communications and public affairs associations/organizations.

8. Ed’s firm, Bergstraesser Strategies, spans industries and scopes of work.?He has directed recent and current programs in tech and telecom, the entertainment marketing space (including a project with Disney), data center and supply chain technology, and even the burgeoning cannabis industry, in the areas of distribution, branding and regulatory.

He is managing development work for a couple of non-profits, including one that assists neurodiverse people, called Seats on the Spectrum, in getting better access to the performing arts.?The summer of 2024 will be busy for Ed, as he helps clients at the times of the national political conventions in the Midwest.

Want to be better informed about the rapidly-changing industries and areas described above? Get in touch with Ed today!

9. While some property owners host travelers, tourists, and guests, Ed (just for kicks) runs a stylish and deluxe Airbnb in Rhinebeck, a picturesque town of Dutchess County in New York’s Hudson Valley.?

View Ed’s listing and consider booking his “Frank Lloyd Wright-esque” studio space for a weekend this year.?

10. It may not be a surprise to know that Ed has handled and directed a slew of public service campaigns. However, one notable experience was when he worked directly with the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton. On this once-in-a-lifetime assignment, he put his skills to work on an initiative that created national awareness of telecommunications relay services for deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans.??

Adding to his government sector work, Ed conceived Project Launchpad, an initiative with MCI and NASA which brought real-life projection (in direct communication with NASA’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station) of the space shuttle launch to Chicago metropolitan population students in a planetarium setting.??

To hear more stories about Ed’s experiences, connect with him and grab a virtual chat. He has a lot to share… and he’s sure you do, too.

Do you have a list of things people should know about you, too? Let’s hear yours!